The background description provided here is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Substrate processing systems may be used to deposit film on substrates such as semiconductor wafers. Example processes that may be performed on a substrate include, but are not limited to, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), atomic layer deposition (ALD), plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD), and plasma-enhanced ALD (PEALD). A substrate may be arranged on a substrate support, such as a pedestal, an electrostatic chuck (ESC), etc. in a processing chamber of the substrate processing system. During processing, a gas mixture is introduced into the processing chamber and plasma may be used to enhance chemical reactions within the processing chamber.
Tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) precursor gas may be used when depositing silicon dioxide (SiO2) film on a substrate. For TEOS-based films, film stability and shrinkage are linearly related to deposition temperature. In general, higher deposition temperatures and more compressive as-deposited film correspond to increased stability during post deposition integration steps at higher temperatures. Some substrate applications require relatively thick TEOS film. The stress of the TEOS film is tuned to be neutral or slightly compressive. However, TEOS deposition rates decrease significantly with increasing deposition temperature, which reduces throughput.